Vandana Shiva — Biodiversity or GMOs?

Within Vandana Shiva’s dedication to defending the natural world is a profound celebration of life. When we allow systems to sustain balance and wholeness, life truly can thrive. Below are some clips from an interview with THRIVE that never made it into the final cut of the film.

In conjunction with World Health Day, on April 7th, Vandana has asked us to share this message and call to action about choosing biodiversity over GMOs — specifically the Trojan horse that is Golden Rice. Please tune in for this important message.

Audio Transcription

Vandana Shiva: As long as we stay alive, as long as we do not see ourselves as separate, as long as we see ourselves as carried by this amazing force, this amazing intelligence, there is never a moment you can feel powerless because you experience that deep power every moment and that’s where you stop despairing.

And in the ????, communities have got together to harvest rain as they used to traditionally through ??? and rivers that had died are coming alive. So, we are seeing a realignment with the water cycle and the sanctity of water and it is a power. That realignment unleashes energies, political and spiritual energies, that are, in my view, stronger than the power of capital, irresponsible capital, and we are turning things around.

There’s nothing like “the big work” and “the small work”. All work done for keeping life in its fullness and maintaining life in its fullness is The Great Work, as Thomas Berry taught. As a mother, I always say, “Once you’ve changed a babies ‘nappies’, that becomes the measure of the great work.” The ability to be there to change the ‘nappie’ at 3 a.m. in the morning — that is as important as dealing with the World Bank and it’s as important as dealing with the World Trade Organization.

Most cultures for most of humanity have lived over long periods of time by adapting to the patterns. We have developed in contemporary times this arrogance that our patterns are superior and that there is no pattern — that it’s all chaos, it’s disorder, it’s just accident — and then imposing the structures of concrete, the structure of fossil fuels, the patterns of pollution on a body of patterns of constant recycling. It is really the challenge of our times.

I think real science has to be a spiritual endeavor because real science is understanding deep patterns, understanding lasting process, and understanding how things hang together. Spirituality is the same thing. It is about understanding our place in the universe, it is about connecting to the rest of life, and that connection creates in its very existence a humility of you being just a small part of a very, very large, limitless beast and, while creating humility in you, it also creates responsibility that what you do has impact on a lot, on the full fabric, on the whole web of life.

BIODIVERSITY OR GMOS: WILL THE FUTURE OF NUTRITION BE IN WOMEN’S HANDS OR UNDER CORPORATE CONTROL?

By Vandana Shiva

Summary

Women have been the primary growers of food and nutrition throughout history, but today, food is being taken out of our hands and substituted for toxic commodities controlled by global corporations. Monoculture industrial farming has taken the quality, taste and nutrition out of our food. As a result, India is facing a nutritional crisis: every fourth Indian goes hungry, and in 2011 alone, diabetes took the lives of 1 million Indians. Malnutition and Anaemia requires affordable, diverse, nutritionally rich food where health & nutrition of women & children are given high priority, with them having much more say in decision making.

Now, the same companies who created the crisis are promising a miracle solution: GMOs. Genetically engineered Golden Rice and GMO Bananas are being proposed by corporations hiding behind the cloak of academia as a solution to hunger and malnutrition in the Global South. But these are false miracles. Indigenous biodiverse varieties of food grown by women provide far more nutrition than the commodities produced by industrial agriculture. Golden Rice is 350% less efficient in providing Vit A than the biodiversity alternatives that women grow. GMO ‘iron-rich’ Bananas have 3000% less iron than turmeric and 2000% less iron than amchur (mango powder). Fenugreek (Methi), drumstick (Sahjan) and many others are far richer in Iron, & their availability & affordability need to be promoted. Apart from being nutritionally empty, GMOs are part of an industrial system of agriculture that is destroying the planet, depleting our water sources, increasing green houses gases, and driving farmers into debt and suicide through a greater dependence on chemical inputs. Moreover, these corporate-led industrial monocultures are destroying biodiversity, and we are losing access to the food systems that have sustained us throughout time. When we consider the number of patents involved in these initiatives, it becomes all too clear that the only beneficiaries of these supposedly ‘people-led’ ventures are large companies operating for profit — not for people.

This needs to stop now. We call on all women — the world’s primary food-growers and food-givers — to stand together and reclaim our knowledge, our farming, and our food. To expose the lies generated by the GMO industry, to reject the false promises of Golden Rice and GMO Bananas, and to reclaim the planet for all living beings.

India’s nutritional emergency

India is facing a nutritional emergency. We are the capital of hunger and malnutrition. Every fourth Indian is hungry. Every second child wasted and stunted. India is the diabetes capital of the world with 50.8 million patients.

An imbalanced agriculture based on monocultures and an imbalanced diet based on further denutrified white polished rice, & fine white flour has become a cause of increasing chronic Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs). With 80% Medical costs being Out of pocket expenditure (OOPE) paid for by the patients & the families, NCDs become killers. Nearly 50% of Indian women suffer from iron deficiency anaemia.

What should be our response to this nutritional emergency: bringing biodiversity into our agriculture and food, or intensifying chemical monocultures of rice through the introduction of GMO Golden Rice? Empowering women by keeping food and nutritional security in their hands, or allowing corporations to take control of our food?

Nutritional deficiencies are a direct result of destruction of biodiverse sources of nutrition by industrial monocultures. Proponents of industrial agriculture — most significantly implemented in India through the Green Revolution — did not value nutrition. Instead, they focused on increasing inputs of imported chemicals, water and fossil fuels to grow chemical monocultures, in which food was reduced to an empty, toxic commodity. It lost is quality, taste, aroma, and — most importantly — its nutrition.

There are six processes through which industrial farming robs food of its nutrition.

First, industrial breeding is based on uniformity, long distance transport, and industrial processing. In comparison, food grown by women — who have been the primary seed breeders and producers of food — is based on diversity, taste, nutrition, quality and resilience. Traditional Indian varieties of wheat like Kathia, Bansi, and Mishri are full of taste and nutrition with low gluten varieties too. Industrially bred wheat varieties, on the other hand, are low in nutrition and have contributed to the epidemic of gluten intolerance.

Second, by replacing biodiversity with monocultures, industrial agriculture reduces the amount of nutrition per acre. With diversity we can grow enough iron for 20 Indias, and enough Vit A for all of India today.

Third, by substituting the sophisticated ecological processes of renewing fertility with chemical inputs of synthetic fertilizers, the health of the soil is destroyed, nutrition in soils is reduced, and plants which provide our food become nutritionally empty.

Percentage Decline in Mineral Contentof US and British Crops in the Last Sixty Years

Mineral

US 1963–1992(13 fruits & vegetables)

Britain 1936–1987(20 fruits & 20 vegetables)

N/A, not analyzed. * U.S. (Berginer, 1997) and British (Mayer, 1997) data.

Calcium

−29

−19

Magnesium

−21

−35

Sodium

N/A

−43

Potassium

−6

−14

Phosphorus

−11

−6

Iron

−32

−22

Copper

N/A

−81

The British Journal of Nutrition published a meta-analysis done by Professor Carlo Leifert of Newcastle University and 15 other scientists from around the world. This research finds significant differences in the nutritional content of organic and non-organic crops (fruit, vegetables, cereals and pulses). Organic crops and crop-based food products were found to have significantly higher concentrations of antioxidants (including phenolic acids, flavanones, stilbenes, flavones, flavonols and anthocyanines) compared with their conventionally produced counterparts. The mean percentage difference for most antioxidant compounds was between plus 18% and 69%. Smaller, but still statistically significant, composition differences were also detected for a number of carotenoids and vitamins.

Fourth, GMOs are also leading to a decline in nutritional availability, because the biotechnology industry is growing commodities, not food. 90% of the GMO corn and soya goes to biofuel and animal food, not human food. This is not a viable food system.

Fifth, herbicide tolerant crops account for most of the GMOs cultivated. The use of Roundup (glyphosate) with Roundup Ready crops removes vital minerals like manganese through “chelation”-binding. Manganese is vital to the gut-brain connection. The depletion of this nutrient could be contributing to the autism epidemic in the USA. According the Centre of Disease Control, at current rates of increase, 1 in 2 children in the USA could be born autistic in 10 to 20 years. (Seneff in Vandana Shiva(ed) Seed Sovereignty, Food Security: Women in the Vanguard, Women Unlimited New Delhi, 2015)

Sixth, just as there is an ecology of biodiversity in our fields, there is an ecology of biodiversity in our nutrition. Nutrients need each other. Fats are needed for absorption and bioavailability of Vit A, and Vit C is needed for absorption of iron. Mechanistic reductionism in nutrition, like mechanistic reductionism in agriculture, undermines the ecological processes through which our farms grow nutrition and our bodies are nourished.

All the evidences points to the need to grow nutrition by intensifying biodiversity and ecological processes in our food and farming systems. This is the path Navdanya has followed over more than 2 decades. We have increased production of nutrition (Health per Acre) as well as farmers’ incomes (Wealth per Acre) through agroecology and biodiversity.

But today, industrial agriculture paradigm is trying to extend its non-sustainable life by promising answers to malnutrition through GMOs such as Golden Rice and GM Bananas.

Golden Rice is a False Miracle

Golden Rice is genetically engineered rice with two genes from a daffodil and one gene from a bacterium which gives it a yellow colouring, which is supposed to increase beta carotene, a precursor to Vit A. It is being offered as a miracle cure for Vit A Deficiency (VAD).

But Golden Rice is a false miracle. It is a disease of nutritionally empty monocultures offered as a cure for nutritional deficiency. According to goldenrice.org, children under the age of 7 require 450 ‘units’ of Retinol (Vitamin A) Equivalents. Children would therefore have to eat 300gms of Golden Rice to get their daily requirement of Vit A. In indigenous food cultures, a child’s diet normally contains less than 150 gms of rice, but also contains a range of other nutritious foods grown by women. In fact, Golden Rice is 350% less efficient in providing Vit A than the biodiversity alternatives that women have to offer. To get your daily requirement of Vit A, all you need to eat is one of the following:

two tablespoons of Spinach or Cholai leavesor Radish leaves

four tablespoons of Mustard or Bathua leaves

one tablespoon of coriander chutney

one and a half table spoon of mint chutney

one carrot

one mango

Not only do these indigenous alternatives based on women’s knowledge provide more Vit A than Golden Rice at a lower cost, they also provide other nutrients. One such example is iron, which helps fight iron deficiency and anaemia. But just like the biotechnology industry is offering Golden Rice for Vit A deficiency, it is promoting GMO bananas for increased Vit A and iron. In reality, GMO bananas provide 7000% less iron than indigenous biodiversity that Indian women are experts in growing and processing.

By foregoing biodiversity alternatives that provide more nutrition, the biotechnology industry is pushing for a monoculture rice diet, which is a recipe for intensifying the diabetes epidemic. With 62 million patients, India already has extremely high rates of diabetes. Golden Rice is an irresponsible proposal that would intensify this by blocking much-needed alternatives — biodiversity and balance in our diets. For example, dietary fats are needed to absorb Vit A. To get these in our diets, we need biodiversity of oilseed crops and livestock. Rice monocultures displace both these forms of fat, leaving us with no way to absorb Vit A, and thus aggravate the nutritional crisis.

Golden Rice will also aggravate the ecological crisis caused by industrial agriculture. Since Golden Rice is part of the industrial agriculture package (also known as the seed-chemical package), it promotes monocultures, which further destroy biodiversity. Golden Rice will increase the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, which are rupturing the planetary boundary of the nitrogen cycle.

India is already one of the largest importers of nitrogen fertilizers, and Golden Rice will only serve to increase this. Moreover, it will increase the use of water, intensifying the water crisis. It will contribute to climate change through increased green house gas emissions. And it will leave our farmers liable to higher input costs through dependence on chemicals and fees for proprietary technologies.

As a source of nutrition for the Global South, Golden Rice has no real benefits. But considering the precedents set by soya, corn, canola and cotton, introducing Golden Rice as a way for large companies to gain control over entire food cultures based on rice, makes perfect sense.

Golden Rice is A Trojan Horse for Corporate Control

Proponents of Golden Rice declare that it is a product of public research carried out through public funding. But in reality, the scientists involved are closely linked to the biotechnology corporations pushing royalty collection through patents.

Scientists Ingo Potrykus (Zurich) and Peter Beyer (Freiberg) are closely connected to the Biotechnology corporations for commercialization of Golden Rice through patents. There are more than 70 patents linked to Golden Rice, despite it being promoted as a product made for the public by the public. Corporations controlling these patents include Bayer AG, Monsanto Co, Orynova BV and Zeneca Mogen BV. A letter written by Dr. Potrykus illustrates just how enmeshed the invention of Golden Rice and corporate interests always were. When questioned about his partnerships with corporations in an email exchange with RAFI/ETC Dr. Potrykus wrote,

“Why did we need to involve a commercial partner? Because Golden Rice also needs a commercial basis to reach the urban poor. Why do we need a patent? Because only then we can ensure, that nobody interferes with our task. Zeneca (now Syngenta) had, therefore, legal rights on the Golden Rice. Why are you upset if in return Zeneca is trying to make profit from developing a commercial ‘Golden Rice’, which even also will have benefits for the poor not directly linked to subsistence farmers? Could you not agree that it is neither fair nor wise to blame industry for working for profit? This is for what they are there.”

The project leader on the Golden Rice project at the International Rice Research Institute is Dr Gerard Barry, was also involved with some of Monsanto’s ‘golden egg’ patents and the man responsible for the company’s toxic RoundUp resistant products. There is a clear revolving door between corporations and research institutions in which a handful of actors are driving a for-profit corporate venture. Giants including Monsanto and Syngenta sit in the driver’s seat by controlling patents Intellectual Property Rights, while cleverly spinning these initiatives as philanthropy to open up for more & more patented grains, vegetables, fruits, while ensuring systematic erosion of tradition diverse foods & Traditional knowledge about healthier, more nutritional, culturally acceptable, diverse food crops & foods, projecting them as inferior.

The alternative lies in women’s hands and minds

On International Women’s Day 8th March 2015 and World Health Day 7th April 2015, we the women of India and the world concerned & engaged with Women’s Health & nutrition commit ourselves to reclaiming our seed, food, and knowledge sovereignty so that we can all enjoy healthy, safe, nutritious, tasty and diverse food. And through our food, we will reclaim our health and the health of the planet.

We will not allow a further degradation of our food systems and knowledge systems. We do not have to go down the road of replacing our biodiversity with GMO monocultures and our rich knowledge of food and nutrition with scientific and ethical fraud. We will not sacrifice our seed and food sovereignty for corporate control and profits.

Spread gardens of hope, diversity and nutrition everywhere: in schools, on rooftops, on balconies.

Spread nutritional literacy about our diverse foods, and biosafety literacy about toxics and GMOs. Celebrate 7th April, World Health Day, which WHO has declared Safe Food Day from Farm to Table as a day for promoting Pesticide Free, GMO Free food.

Celebrate Mother Earth Day, 22nd April 2015 to liberate the Earth, our farms, our kitchens and our bodies from the burden of disease. Celebrate the connection between the health of the soil and the health of all beings on the planet during 2015 the United Nations’ “Year of Soil”.

As women, in all our vibrant diversity, we will make a paradigm shift from monocultures to diversity, from chemicals to organic, from reductionist and mechanistic science to ecological knowledge, from corporate control and monopolies to seed sovereignty, food sovereignty and knowledge sovereignty in women’s hands and women’s minds. We will grow alternatives to the ecological and health disaster of industrial agriculture and its new false promises of Golden Rice and GMO Bananas.

We will shape the future of food and nutrition through biodiversity in our hands and in our minds. We will take back our seeds, and we will take back our food.

We use cookies to provide certain site functionality. You can disable cookies at
any time but parts of our site may not work correctly without them. To learn more,
please review our Cookie Policy. By
continuing to use this site, you acknowledge and accept our use of cookies and
our revised Privacy Policy as of
February 10, 2019.

Stay Connected by Sharing Your Email

We will be providing special offers and behind the scenes coverage to our mailing list for THRIVE II: This is What it Takes!, which we are in the midst of producing right now. If you are not already on our mailing list, please sign up so we can include you!

This message will automatically stop showing up once you have responded so long as your computer allows cookies to register your visit.